Draped in Yellow and Black
by NicoGotSkeletalButterflies
Summary: Nico is entering his fourth year in Hufflepuff house when he falls in love with the Gryffindor Will Solace
1. The Reluctant Hufflepuff

_A friend on Tumblr said she wanted to write a Solangelo Hogwarts AU. Therefore I couldn't stop thinking about Solangelo in Hogwarts, and I ended up writing the first chapter. _

_Three years before: The Sorting _

Nico wanted to cry when he was put in Hufflepuff.

It just wasn't fair. He was already different from the rest of his family and the one thing he had been hoping on to show he truly belonged was ending up in Gryffindor like everyone else.

Both of his sisters were in Gryffindor, Hazel was a second year when he was getting sorted and Bianca was in fifth year. Ever since Bianca had gone to Hogwarts the two of them had been crossing their fingers and hoping beyond hope that they would follow in their sister's footsteps and be draped in gold and red for their school career.

When Hazel had been sorted, Nico was sure he would end up in the same house. After all, Hazel was adopted, and if she could take after the family without even being blood related surely he could as well. He hadn't let himself hope and daydream though, just in case he was disappointed, but still, a small part of him was certain he would end up where he wanted.

Both his sisters were smiling widely at him when it was his turn to try on the hat. He was small-even for a first year-small and pale with slightly curled black as night hair and big brown eyes that glimmered like a rivers surface. The hat's rim went right over his eyes and he stared at the hats insides for a solid five minutes. The hat was quiet to everyone but him, only he knew the hats frantic whispers in his ears, trying to decide. He was quickly labeled as difficult, but after that he just heard a mesh of murmurs and the occasional house name before it was howling out its answer.

_"HUFFLEPUFF!"_

Nico heard two gasps-which he knew belonged to his sisters-before the hat was lifted and the Hufflepuff table began to clap for him. He did not freeze in his chair, but got up quickly and went to the table, wanting attention off of him, wanting everyone to forget that he had been put in the house everyone made fun of for being lame.

He sat there, kept his head down, and did not eat a morsel of what should have been his first meal at Hogwarts. He hadn't eaten breakfast because he was too excited and had only ate a pumpkin pasty because Bianca had told him he would be sick at the sorting if he didn't.

During the meal, two little tears had escaped his down casted eyes; none of the other kids around him seemed to notice. This was the Hufflepuff table after all, if they saw one of their own crying they would do something, they were loyal and kind like that, but they were all too excited to be there to pay him any mind at the moment.

When the feast was done and the Headmistress made her speech, Nico followed the Hufflepuff prefects to their common room. It was near the kitchens, threw a moving portrait of a large badger. The common room was big and very cozy looking, with a lot of yellow hangings and big fat armchairs and couches that were stripped with the house colors. There was a bookcase and a big fire place, adding to the nice, comforting feeling.

Nico found himself relaxing when he entered the room, he felt….at home. More at home then he had ever felt in his life. He wanted to curl up in one of the armchairs and take a little nap by the fireplace. He did not fear being hurt or bullied here like he had been in the past. This was the place he could always be safe, and always be comfortable.

There were underground tunnels that led to the dormitories, the doors were perfectly round like a barrel tops and opened up to an equally round dorm room with big beds that were dressed in yellow blankets and sheets and pillows. The four-posters were black as was the headboard and one of the smaller square throw pillows that rested on the bigger yellow ones.

The prefect the had brought them down there went to his own dorm and Nico sat in silence for a moment with the three other boys that he would be sharing his room with for the rest of his school days.

"Wow," one of them said finally. He was almost as short and thin as Nico was, with big sapphire blue eyes and a head of lovely dark brown curls, he had a splatter of freckles across his cheeks, just like Bianca did. "Look at this place-it's _awesome_." He looked at them. "I'm Cecil, by the way! Cecil Prescott!"

The other boys introduced themselves as Malcolm and Dakota, Nico muttered his name and by Cecil's excitable nod he guessed they had heard him.

Nico inspected the other two boys. Malcolm was the size of an average eleven year old with softly curled light blond hair and dark gray eyes; he was looking around the room a little quickly, like he wasn't sure why he was there. Dakota was tall and broader than the rest of them; he had a red mark around his mouth from drinking a lot of strawberry juice and messy black hair.

Dakota was the first to choose a bed; he went to the first one by the door on the left side of the room and threw himself right down, resting his face in the sheets, a moment later he was snoring softly. Cecil laughed in delight at his sleeping form and skipped off to pick out his own bed.

Malcolm gave him a stiff nod which Nico returned. The blond boy took the bed closest to the door on the right side, which left Nico with the last one. Cecil had taken the bed next to Dakota's so Nico took the one that was between him and Malcolm.

A few moments later he sat in his big bed, which was extremely comfortable, and looked around at the room and his roommates. This was his home now-this was where he belonged. And for whatever reason, looking at it all now, he was okay with that.

…

Until, of course, the next day and he saw his sisters happily chatting away at the Gryffindor table. They sat with their friends and each other at the same time.

The knob of depression that had settled in his stomach last night now made itself known once again. Neither of them noticed when he entered with his dorm mates and when he carefully snuck to his house table. At least he was not alone in feeling like he was put in the wrong house.

"How can I be in Hufflepuff?" Malcolm nearly whimpered for the fifth time that morning. "I'm smarter than my sister-and she's older and in Ravenclaw! I was supposed to be in Ravenclaw too! What happened, what went wrong, was I not thinking intelligent enough thoughts when the hat was sorting me?"

Cecil smiled at the blond brightly. "Your way too nice to be in Ravenclaw, Malcolm."

"Nice? _Nice? _I don't care about-"Malcolm trailed off, biting his lip, because apparently he cared very much about being a nice person. Nico had to say he agreed with Cecil-Ravenclaw's could certainly be nice, just like Gryffindor's could be smart, but the wise house was also known for their sneaky thinking and occasionally being a tad stuck up. Malcolm was not sneaky, Malcolm was stuck up, Nico knew that much about him, he was quiet for the most part and pretty nice when he wasn't all panicky. The comment about being smarter than his sister was a sibling jibe and did not count to true character in Nico's opinion because everyone did it.

"You belong were you belong." Nico told the blond softly, not wanting him to feel distressed.

Malcolm's eyes had turned a little watery, but he stopped talking and nodded his head sharply.

Cecil grinned and looked at Nico. "The little badger speaks!"

"I've spoken before now." Nico mumbled shyly.

Dakota grumbled and looked at Cecil, "Leave him be."

"I wasn't making fun of him!" Cecil insisted, and somehow Nico knew he really wasn't.

Nico somehow managed to escape the Great Hall without his sisters approaching him. He had his first class to get too after all-Potions. Dakota and Malcolm were walking a little ahead, the broader boy trying to comfort the still disappointed blond.

Cecil was skipping at his side. Somewhere along their trip, he had grabbed Nico by the arm, let out a shout of excitement and said, "Nico, you and I are going to be the best of friends!"

"Okay." He had said.

"And we're gonna have the best times of our lives here!"

"Okay." he had repeated.

He wasn't aware of just how true that statement was at the time.


	2. The Distressed Hufflepuff

_Nico's feelings are very confusing, so confusing even he really doesn't understands them._

Nico didn't talk to his sisters for two months. He didn't want to be reminded that he didn't belong with them and with the rest of his family. And instead concentrated on fitting in where he was meant too. It was shockingly easy; everyone in Hufflepuff was so warm, so nice-so accepting. They took everyone's teasing with light hearts and cheerful wave offs, if they didn't do their homework they fessed up instead of making excuses, they always tried their hardest in classes, and tried to get along with other people and steered clear from drama as much as they could. Nico learned that he had been hearing lies all these years-Hufflepuff was not just a house where one shoved the students that were not 'special' because the house and its students were just as special as the others in their own way.

He liked being in Hufflepuff, the hat was right to put him in there, because it was amazing-and if only Nico and his fellow classmates realized that, well so be it. And that right there was why he was not a Gryffindor, because they would have not let the matter sit, they would have to prove to everyone just how amazing their house was. Hufflepuff's didn't need that to be happy and content with life, it was not a necessity.

Eventually though, no matter how hard he tried, he could not steer clear from his sisters claws. Bianca, for once, detached herself from her batch of friends, grabbed Hazel from her little mixed group, and then cornered him in the courtyard. He had been outside doing some Potions homework during lunch because he liked the weather, cold and a little crisp around the edges.

"Baby brother," Bianca had said when they reached him.

He jumped when he heard her voice, his big brown eyes startled. Unconsciously he started collecting his spread out things and shoving them in his bag. "What are you doing here?" he asked his sisters, standing up before either of them could sit down.

"Can we talk?" Bianca asked, trying to grab his wrist, Nico calmly shook her hand off and shock his head.

"Sorry," he said, his voice surprisingly cold. His sisters looked mildly taken aback by his tone but he ignored it. "I have to get to lunch with my house."

"You….you could sit with us." Hazel offered as Nico side stepped them and started making his way back into the castle.

Nico stopped in his tracks and looked back at them. "I'd rather be where I belonged." He turned his back on them but barely got a step in when Bianca interrupted him.

"Is that it?" she called at him. "Your won't talk to us because your bitter you didn't get into Gryffindor like the rest of us? Nico, please, grow up a little."

Anger burned in his belly, and before he knew it he was turning around and glaring at his sister with years of hurt and anger shining in his eyes. "Shut up, Bianca," he choked, his eyes burning. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Then what is it if it isn't that?" Bianca implored, stepping closer to him.

"I don't belong Bianca, that's what this is about, and it hurts me so much because you don't even seem to care, neither of you do," Nico said. "I've never fit in with the rest of our family. I'm the quiet, simple little Hufflepuff that's outshined everyday by a river of gold and red and nobody notices." Hazel was shaking her head, her lip wobbling, but Nico didn't pay her any mind.

"I've always been outshined by the both of you, and now I found a place where I'm happy." Nico sighed, blinking away the burning tears the best he could. "I belong in Hufflepuff, because I am one, I belong somewhere for the first time in what feels like forever to me. You might not see it that way, maybe you think I do belong with the rest of the family, but for now I don't see it that way. For now, Hufflepuff is my one and only home. Maybe I'll change my mind or see things differently over time but for now I don't, and I need you to respect that. I love both of you, you know I do, but for the moment, being around either of you hurts too much, because I'm reminded of how much I don't fit in. That probably doesn't make any sense to either of you, but I get it, I get myself for once, and I like it. And I'm sorry."

And with that confusing explanation of his feelings that not even he really understood, Nico sent his sisters a blow kiss and entered the castle, leaving them in the courtyard with their golden and red scarves, and his yellow and black one blowing behind him.

Hazel looked at her sister sadly when their brother disappeared. "I don't understand, Bianca." She told her big sister. "Nico is family, and family always belongs together, what does he mean by any of that?"

"He goes threw everything in life with his heart on his sleeve and innocent eyes, and the slightest thing with burn him." Bianca said.

"I don't understand that either." Hazel said with a frown.

Bianca laughed and hugged her sister with one arm. "Nico is sensitive." She explained more simply.

Hazel nodded in agreement. "Hufflepuff's are sensitive, it makes sense."

Bianca ruffled her hair. "You heard him, Hazel. He loves you, he won't ever stop loving you, so don't let yourself be hurt by it. He'll come around eventually and we'll be there to wipe his tears and clean the cuts."

Hazel sighed. "You explain things really weirdly."

Bianca sighed and bumped her shoulder. "Lighten up, kid."

…..

Over the year, Nico grew closer and closer to not only his dorm mates, but other kids in his house. He made friends with a first year girl named Lou Ellen, who apparently already knew Cecil from childhood, and another girl named Juniper, who was in second year with long amber hair and big light green eyes. He even made friends outside of his house-two of them. One of them was a year two Slytherin by the name of Clarisse La Rue, who got into a lot of fights with boys outside her house, who he met in detention. He had gotten detention for being late to class-he had tried to explain to his professor that it wasn't his fault, but they had no mercy for him.

He had spent the first ten minutes crying his eyes out before Clarisse had told him to shut up, put his 'big boy panties on' and tell her what the issue was so she wouldn't have to hear his pathetic weeping anymore. You have to understand, Nico was a first year, and detention seemed like life ruining stuff to him. After five minutes they were getting along perfectly well and talking about the overzealous Quidditch game commenter that made almost every game unbearable.

The other out of house friend was Reyna, a first year Gryffindor that he met over Christmas break at the small table of left over students. Both of all their dorm mates had gone home for the holidays so they spent their days together. By the time everyone came back they were two peas in a pod, thicker then thieves, and all those other weird sayings people used to describe close friendships. Cecil was adorably jealous of her when he returned to find his grumpy best friend befriending someone just as grumpy, but Nico quickly introduced them and Cecil warmed up to Reyna and brought her out of her shell the same way he had done with Nico.

Nico's relationship with his sisters was still strained, a part of him knew he was being…well, _difficult._ But another part wouldn't allow him to let go of whatever it was he was holding onto. Nonetheless, after Christmas and he didn't go home while his sisters did, he tried to take a step forward. They were both very enthusiastic about his small progress in whatever problem he was having, it was still hard to be with them sometimes, but he tried to sit it out for them on occasion. He even hung out with Hazel and her friends in their common room once-that had lasted about an hour before he ran away with Reyna to play Exploding Snap and Wizard Chess.

It was hard to say goodbye to his friends and go home with his sisters on the last day, but they all promised to write-even Dakota, who hated writing just about anything. Cecil warned Nico he might find him sleeping underneath his bed just because he missed him; he decided to hold the brunet to that.

As he expected, they were picked up by their father's hag of a secretary Alecto, and when they got home neither of their parents were pack from work. Their mother was a Healer and their father was in high places in the Ministry, so they were both busy people.

Nico went straight to his room after entering the house and saying a 'see you later, I might take a nap' to his sisters. He unpacked his things and framed the picture he had taken with Cecil, Malcolm and Dakota and put it on his bedside table, they were all smiling in the picture and Cecil was jumping up and down in excitement as usual because it was snowing behind them. He hung his Hufflepuff scarf on his bedpost and then took a nap.

He couldn't wait to go back to school.

He was woken up a few hours later by his mother. He hadn't had much communication with his parents while at school, more because of his lack of effort than anything. The third day of school Nico wrote his mother a note informing her he didn't want the one letter a week thing they had previously planned and instead lowered it to one a month, and even then they were short and direct. _How are you? How's work? How are your classes? _

"My little angel," Mama cooed when she saw him, she grabbed him and pulled him to her in a tight hug. "How was school? Did you have lots of fun?" she asked as if that wasn't all they had spoken about since school had begun.

"School was great, Mama." Nico said.

"Was it fun?" Mama wondered.

Nico pondered that. "It was more…happy." He answered, and her smile had never looked more radiant.

They walked down to dinner together and entered the dining room. Well, Mama entered the dining room; he stood in the threshold and stared at the walls in shock.

Before he had left home, the dining room was draped red and gold Gryffindor banners with the proud lion in the center of them all along the walls. But now yellow and black Hufflepuff banners joined them, hanging proud and new with their badgers.

His sisters and his father didn't seem to think a thing of it, it was like they had always been there.

Nico turned on his heel and left the dining room and returned to his bedroom. A moment later, the door opened and his mother followed in after him.

"Bambino," she said disapproval strong in her voice. "What are you doing? It's time to eat."

Nico looked up at her and only then did he realize he was crying. "Mama," he sobbed. "What are those doing there?"

Mama frowned. "What is what doing where?"

"Those Huf-Hufflepuff banners! Why are they hanging in the dining room?" His eyes widened when a thought came to him. "Did Bianca make you do it?"

"Nico," Mama said, sitting next to him on the bed and rubbing circles into his little back. "Those have been there since September."

"September?" Nico demanded. "Why?"

Mama blinked, her accent was a little stronger when she said, "Because we have the banners to proudly show the houses of our family."

"Mama!" Nico wailed. "Only I'm in Hufflepuff!"

"You're a part of the family, no?" Mama asked.

Nico sobbed and put his face in his mother's lap, crying heavily.

"Nico?" Mama said in confusion. "What's wrong with the banners? I don't understand."

"I'm a freak," Nico sobbed. "A f_reak. _I'm the only one in our family to ever be in a house that wasn't Gryffindor, there's something wrong with me, I don't belong in this family and I never have and those banners just make it all the more obvious."

Mama was quiet for a moment and then she loudly scolded him in Italian. "_Nico di Angelo! What do you mean you don't belong in this family?" _

Nico sniffed and rubbed at his eyes. "I'm not in Gryffindor."

"_So what?" _His mother demanded.

"I'm different."

"And why is that a problem?" His mother asked, switching back to English but accent still thick.

"Mama, I don't think you're realizing what I'm trying to say!" Nico whined.

"Nico, what does houses have to do with families? Family is family, and houses don't determine anything. You took the whole thing way to seriously, my baby!"

"It's not just the houses," Nico insisted. "I've always been different then everyone else."

"You mean you have a different personality then your siblings and parents." Mama clarified more then asked.

"Well…yes."

"Why is that bad?"

"I….I don't know." Nico said honeslty. "I just…always wanted to be like everyone else, to fit in."

"Nico." Mama laughed. "Have you ever heard the someone say _Hogwarts is Family."_

_"_Yes."

"And Hogwarts is made up of four different houses with four groups of totally different people, isn't it?" Mama asked.

"Yes."

"But it's still a family."

Nico frowned a little at that as he started to understand more and more what his mother was trying to tell him. "I know."

"See, we are the same. Hogwarts is family even though it's all different, and little families are still families even though their all different." Mama kissed his forehead and stroked his bangs out of his face as realization hit him at full force. "You have the spirt of a Hufflepuff, you are trustworthy, kind, loyal, hardworking and quiet, and that is what makes you wonderful and just as important and special as everyone else in our family. Do you understand, my love?"

"Yes, mama."

_Next chapter will take place in the present where Nico is in fourth year. Please review. _


End file.
